


The Quiet After the Storm

by Mairyn



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: F/M, General Tender Desperate Sex Before the End of All Things, MSQ Spoilers, Tender Sex, Tenderness, Touch-Starved
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2020-07-11 22:48:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19935793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mairyn/pseuds/Mairyn
Summary: The night before the Warrior of Light sets off for the Tempest, she and Ardbert spend their final moments comforting one another.(Or: Square, I would like to bang the ghost man please.)





	The Quiet After the Storm

_ Don’t make a choice that leaves you alone. Nothing is worth that. Especially not eternity. _

\--

They would leave for Lakeland tomorrow, in search of passage to the Tempest. But for now, beneath the haze of a bright yellow midnight sky, the Warrior of Light tried and failed to rest. Guilt kept her wide awake. A world awash in light once more. She  _ would  _ fix this, again, just as she had done the first time. She had to.

“I can’t let them down,” she murmured against her pillow, speaking to no one in particular.

“Hold onto those feelings.” A voice answered. Startled, she turned her gaze to the foot of her bed and found Ardbert seated on the edge of her mattress, at ease in a way she hadn’t seen him before. Perhaps the rallying of the Crystarium’s citizens had inspired him. “You’ll need them in the battle to come.”

“You always appear when I least expect,” she teased gently, sitting up slowly and pushing the covers to her feet. She was wearing little more than a brightlinen nightgown, but she cared little. Odds were, without meaning to, Ardbert had accidentally seen her in far less already. She’d grown used to being watched, here in Norvrandt.

The truth was, though, she didn’t mind. The company of another who understood--fully and truly--the burden she bore had come as a welcome reprieve in the weeks past. So much so that… Well. She’d always known how to pick them. Why not add feelings for an ephemeral shade to her list of loves lost?

“I nearly felt you,” Ardbert admitted, quietly, as though he’d sensed her train of thought. “On the Crystarium balcony. It was strange, after so long.” She watched him examine his gloved hands. “I’d forgotten what it felt like.”

When they’d touched, for an instant the light between them melded together and spoke volumes for the battle to come. One or both of them would be lost tomorrow. Ardbert’s purpose would be served. But for now… For now, she would take what little she could. She would show this man--with words and body and heart and soul--what his partnership had meant to her during her stay. She edged closer to him, until they sat side by side, mere inches between them.

She reached out and touched his hand, surprised at first by the cool wash of aether against her fingertips. She’d felt it before, but in this context it was different; it was as though he were made of it: a phantom, just as he’d promised. But somewhere, just past that… She felt it. Something she could grab hold of, if only she tried hard enough. Emptied as she was of light, she gave it her all. She reached past the aetherial glow as he stared on, perplexed by her sudden fascination. There, beneath the shell Minfilia left him, she found purchase: the flesh of his fingertips, rough and warm and real as any other person she’d ever touched. Ardbert jerked his hand back instinctively, cradling it to his chest.

“What was that?” he asked, half-panicked. “Did you-- How did you…?”

“I touched you,” she said quietly, suddenly hyper-aware of the way every inch of her skin seemed to tingle with sensation. A small flush had risen to Ardbert’s face, as well as her own. She averted her gaze. “I think.” The inn around them was quiet, nightfall having long since passed. Most were asleep by now. They were, she hoped, well and truly alone. “Can I try again?”

Stern faced, Ardbert nodded and returned his hand to her own. A cool wash of aether, once again, then, deeper, warmth. She focused, grasping his fingers in her own. Once again, his flesh touched hers, and this time, he didn’t pull away.

“You are…” he swallowed thickly, caressing her fingertips, “well and truly a miracle.”

His glove had vanished, she noticed, leaving behind a bare hand. She ran her thumbs across the bruised knuckles, fingertips stroking his wide palm. She had lain with men before--felt their bodies pressed against hers, inside hers, their lips on her neck and breasts. But none of that compared to the intimacy of this simple gesture: sharing the first touch Ardbert had felt in more than a century. The relief in his expression set her body alight with warmth. 

“It’s nice,” she laughed, feeling it catch beneath a small sob in her throat. It was foolish, but she felt their connection soul-deep. She’d needed this nearly as desperately as he did. They’d been building towards it since he first appeared to her, lost and so alone. She shook her head. “I’m sorry.”

Ardbert lifted his free hand and reached up to touch her cheek, gently, his fingertips meeting no resistance. Their bond was established for the time being, it seemed. They could touch freely. She pressed into his caress carefully, fearful of overwhelming him. His thumb traced the curve of her cheekbone before slipping his fingertips down the side of her face. Another instant passed and his thumb swept across her lower lip, leaving a sweet tingle in its path.

“It would be stupid of us to do this,” Ardbert said quietly, testing the waters. His flushed face betrayed him. “Anything could happen tomorrow.”

“You’re right,” she agreed. All the same, she turned her head to softly kiss the palm of the hand cradling her face. “But I don’t care.”

His hesitation seemed to clear then, in an instant. Ardbert swept in and kissed her, slowly, as though fearful her aether may sear him again any moment. Lost in a dizzying haze of sensation, She drew closer, allowing the kiss its natural conclusion, every breath between them a reminder of the fate they shared. When they parted, her eyes met his and in them she saw awe--utter, trembling intoxication. Want, in its purest form. She could not help kissing him again, more forcefully this time, dragging his lower lip between hers for just a moment before once again pulling away.

“Is this okay?” she asked breathlessly.

Ardbert nodded, equally lost for words.

And then he was upon her, hand gripping the small of her back and dragging her closer, her lips parting as she gasped quietly. He was firm, but not rough, fingertips tracing along her spine as his tongue swept cleanly across her lower lip. Her hands gripped the leather straps at the front of his armor, pulling him still closer, and she suddenly felt naked in comparison. He’d awakened something inside her, pleasure awash from her core to the tips of her toes. It seemed all too soon when he eventually he pulled away, turning his ministrations to her neck, but the tickle of his lips and stubble sent a pleasant chill down her spine.

“Done this before, have you?” she joked, voice heavy with desire.

“Being the Warrior of Light has its perks,” he murmured. The low, primal hum of his voice drew a wanton sigh from her lips. “Been long, has it?”

She allowed him to lick and kiss and tease her neck and collarbone for a moment longer before she pushed him just slightly away. “Too long for us both.” All but humming with energy now, she shifted to straddle his thighs, fingertips tracing the heavy cuirass and shoulder plates he wore. It was too much. She wanted to feel him, in his entirety. “Can we do something about these?”

Ardbert smiled at her and in an instant his armor was gone, leaving nothing but the naked expanse of his chest behind, peppered with soft brown hair. He, too, was stripped down to his smallclothes, and quite visibly eager for greater sensation to come. She seated herself square in his lap, directly against his heat, and kissed him again, a self-satisfied smirk curving her lips as he groaned near inaudibly.

_ Too long by far. _

Their tongues met for an instant, tasting, before straying once again, eager, teasing kisses drawing them together as close as they could come. She ran her hands down his chest, feeling the muscles honed through years of wielding an axe with the expertise he’d showcased in their former battles, when desperation to save his homeland had drawn him to the Source. His hands bunched in the back of her nightgown and drew it upwards, higher by increments as they kissed, until it’d been drawn over her head and tossed away.

He gazed at her naked breasts for a moment, appreciative, then grabbed her and playfully pressed her back into the mattress. His lips came down on her throat, swearing an oath to her collarbone before travelling lower, worshipping her skin bit by bit as he kissed his way to her chest. His weight bore pleasantly down upon her, the heat of his erection pressing against her thigh. She whimpered as his tongue laved across her left nipple. His hands delicately cupped her breasts as he gave them the attention she so desperately craved.

After some time, Ardbert pressed a single kiss to her lips, slow and loving. When they parted, he admitted, “I didn’t dare allow myself to imagine this, though I found myself wanting after a time.” He nuzzled against the peak of her forehead, breathing in the scent of her hair. “It’d been so long, I could hardly remember what it was like.”

She smiled, tenderness blossoming in her heart, as she gently sat up beneath him and switched their positions. She placed her knee between his legs, carefully, and leaned down to brush her lips against his ear.

“Let me help you remember.”

She started slowly, tracing her fingertips from the sensitive insides of his wrists up the length of his arms, pausing to smooth across old scars as she encountered them. His body had seen the scourge of battle nigh on hundreds of times, a criss-cross of scars both neat and jagged forming an intricate web across the expanse of his skin. She wished she could ask after each one--learn the history he displayed proudly--but they hadn’t the time. So instead she leaned down and kissed the worst of them: a jagged scar along the right side of his chest, reaching from pectoral to just above his navel.

“A massive hunt in Il Mheg,” he said, voice shaking somewhat despite his attempts to steady it. He was breathless, near quivering. To be fair, so was she. “Wings like razors. I might’ve died if Renda-Rae hadn’t--”

She brushed her fingertips across the bulge in his smallclothes. Selfishly, if only for now, she wanted his attention solely trained on her. On this moment. He groaned, his previous thoughts forgotten. She hooked her fingertips in the waistband of his remaining clothing and dragged it downwards, freeing him entirely. Just as rapidly, she wrapped her fingers around him, stroking him once, and he shouted as though he’d never felt such a thing before.

He grabbed her hand and stilled her, swallowing a small laugh. “You don’t want to do that just yet,” he warned. “I want to-- I won’t make it very long.”

From the way he practically strained before her, she believed him. He’d been starved of touch for so long… No doubt the pleasure was unlike anything he’d ever felt. She traced her hands along his thighs and across the skin beside his navel, resisting the urge to wrap her hand around him again.

He grabbed her and pulled her on top of him, reaching down between them until his fingers found the waist of her smallclothes and slipped inside, easily finding their target. The smooth glide of his fingertips nearly undid her, but she took a moment to collect herself and focused on simply breathing against his warm, solid shoulder. She’d needed this. By the Twelve, she’d needed this desperately.

Too eager to wait any longer, she stripped out of her smallclothes and sat naked atop him, flushed from head to toe with warmth and pleasure. “Shall we finish this?”

Ardbert grinned wide, grabbing her hips, and flipped her back into the mattress, her head landing softly on her pillow. He placed himself between her legs and paused, leaning in for one last, lingering kiss, full of all the words they couldn’t yet find a means to speak. Then, slowly but without hesitation, he pressed inside. She sighed as he filled her, discomfort near absent through the haze of her arousal, and met his every motion as he began moving his hips

Ecstasy wasn’t a strong enough word to describe the way every nerve ending in her body seemed to radiate raw and abundant electricity, alive with unflinching desire. His near immediate unsteadiness belied his own struggle to pull away from the edge, to not send himself tumbling too quickly, and she reached up to lace their fingers together as he worked his way towards climax, carrying her with him little by little.

They didn’t last long. Couldn't last long. Not like this. She found herself reaching the precipice within moments, coiling tighter and tighter as their bodies moved together, sighing her pleasure against his neck before suddenly crying out and tumbling, tumbling, into the blue of night, consumed by want. He was quick to follow once she’d squeezed her legs around him, moaning his name, faltering and crying out, collapsing as his hips gave their last, weak motions.

“By the Twelve,” Ardbert groaned when he began to return to his senses some moments later. “I missed that.”

She laughed, unable to control herself in the cloud of euphoria they'd created.

“Once more before morning?” she asked, tracing her fingers up and down the length of his spine, grinning at the way his soul seemed to rest now, in a way it never had. “Just for luck?”

It was a blind desire, willfully ignorant to the future. They couldn’t predict what awaited them in the Tempest come morning. But for the moment, it was enough to simply exist, together, just beyond the veil of guilt and regret.


End file.
